Author: SCWLC Disclaimer: Don't own anything. Distribution: Whoever, wherever, whenever. Just let me know. Timeline: Sort of the beginning of this season, assuming none of the Beastie stuff happened and Connor left town and . . . OK, it's kind of an AU set vaguely in this season. There's no Connor because I can't fit him in anywhere. Summary: Cordelia and Angel are getting married but not everything is as it seems. Notes: Songfic. Dixie Chicks "I Can Love You Better" no less. I guess I'm not over songfics yet. No I don't know what album this is on because I'm not a Chicks fan. Feedback: Send what you've got to scwlc
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All the news reached Buffy essentially simultaneously. She had just torn open the embossed envelope containing the wedding invitation when the phone rang. "Hello?"
"Buffy, it's Wesley. Wesley Wyndham-Pryce," he said.
Her first thoughts, as always, turned to a PI vampire. "Is Angel okay?"
"I would say he's fine physically, but there's something wrong with him. A spell I would say," Wesley told her.
Buffy frowned as she returned some of her attention to the invitation, which she had yet to read more of than the words "Invited" and "Wedding."
So it happened that, as she read the whole properly, Wesley said, "I believe it's a spell designed to imitate certain aspects of a succubus' powers." At the same time, Willow burst through the door saying, "Angel's soul is permanent! I can't believe I missed it!" and Buffy read the words, "You are hereby cordially invited to the wedding of Angel Leahy and Cordelia Chase."
"What?" she asked. Willow, noticing Buffy was on the phone, opened her mouth, closed it and gestured wildly. Buffy frowned and shushed her. "Wesley? Why do you think that?"
He sighed and said, "Well, one of the powers of a succubus is to imitate the form that will most easily seduce the victim. Cordelia has taken to acting a great deal like . . . well . . . you." He gave a snort of disgust. "She's even cut her hair and streaked it blonde. It looks awful and everyone but her and Angel agree it looks so."
"Does anyone else think you're right?" Buffy asked.
Wesley groaned. "Only the warlock I asked to look into it as a favour but, then again, this whole mess is their fault. Fred, bless her soul, got the idea into her head that Cordelia and Angel were a part of some great romance, Lorne's soul reading skill haven't been fully exercised in literally months and Gunn has so little care for the matter he's no use at all."
"And these other people are?" she inquired.
"The rest of Angel Investigations."
Willow was bouncing up and down and looking anxious through the whole exchange. Finally she snatched the receiver away from Buffy and said into it, "I'm sorry, but Buffy's just gonna have to call you back."
"Willow!" Buffy said as her friend slammed it into the cradle.
"Buffy, I was looking over the curse I performed on Angel. I did this whole hypnotic regression thing and the spell I cast was a completely different spell from the original curse! Angel isn't going to lose his soul ever again." She stopped, looked at the ceiling then added, "Well, barring evil warlocks using magic to take it or something."
The Slayer stared at her friend for a long moment, leapt up squealing and hugged her hard, then let go, returned to the bed and called her ex-watcher back. As she waited for him to pick up she told Willow, "Wesley thinks that Angel is marrying Cordelia because of some succubus spell."
"Hello," said Wesley.
"WHAT!?" shrieked Willow.
Buffy could almost hear Wesley's frown over the line. "What's-"
"I just told Willow that you think Angel and Cordy are getting married `cause of a spell," Buffy told him. "Would it be useful for you to know that she just found that there's no more happiness clause?"
"Extremely," he said craftily. "I have a plan, do you think we could include Willow?"
Buffy gestured Willow over to the seat next to her. "Sure, I'll just put on the speaker phone and go shut the door and we can talk."
***********
Angel sat in the latest edition of Caritas as Wesley and the others laughed, told jokes and drank. It was his bachelor party and all Angel could think of was getting home to Cordelia. He smiled dreamily as he thought of his slender, now blonde, seer. She was so beautiful and kind and Angel wondered how he could ever have thought her shallow and self-absorbed. Sure she sometimes didn't take things as well as she might, but no one was perfect.
After all, he couldn't expect her not to be repulsed by the ridges and yellow eyes of his demonic features. Some small whisper in his head recalled a different, natural, blonde who hadn't even noticed the change from brown eyes to gold and human to demon but it was easily ignored. He was with Cordelia. He was going to marry Cordelia. He was in love with . . . B- Cordelia. That small whisper was again suppressed before it had a chance to slip the other name in. It had to be a Freudian slip. The other relationship was long over.
He caught Wesley watching him over the rim of his beer glass. The former watcher laughed and responded easily to the comments of that warlock he'd invited along to the party but he kept his eyes on the vampire across the room. Even as the other man performed some kind of illusion, the second of the evening, his eyes never strayed. The warlock briefly made butterflies flutter from every corner of the room, only to vanish when they touched real objects. Suddenly the illusionary insects converged on Angel, making him swat at them in reflex. Everyone laughed as they all finally disappeared leaving Angel feeling a little foolish.
Gunn stepped forward and held up his hands for silence. Everyone quieted finally and Gunn began to speak. "We all know how much Angel's in love with Cordelia," he said. "I gotta say, with those fury chicks though, I don't see how Angel could ever settle down!"
"Mmmm, Angel!" sighed one of the guys in the audience getting a laugh from everyone present.
The black man nodded with false seriousness, then gave up and grinned again. "Anyway, so I gotta respect a guy who decides he's stuck with one woman for the rest of his life, especially a guy like Angel that makes sure none of the rest of us get any either." He turned and waved to Lorne who turned on the stage lights. "But I feel that since tonight is Angel's last chance to back out, we're gonna show him just what he's gonna be missin'. Hit it Lorne!"
At Gunn's word, the green lounge singer pressed the button that opened the curtains and started up the karaeoke machine. A small blonde woman dressed in tight black pants, a tiny tank top and a black leather jacket strode forward as the music started. Angel noted she had some sort of headgear on. It turned out to be a microphone as she started to sing.
//She's got you wrapped up in her satin and lace. Tied around her little finger.//
The woman did a turn as she sang and ran her hands over her body. She was lithe and beautiful and Angel could swear he'd seen her somewhere before. She reminded him of someone. Possibly Cordelia. But Cordelia had never had the seductive look on her face this blonde did.
//She's got you thinkin' you can never escape. Don't you know your heart's in danger.//
Her whole body arched backward, letting the jacket drop to the floor as she sang leaving her in a tight and tiny tank top. Angel gulped and suddenly felt anger and a possessive rage at the way everyone was ogling her. Everyone but Wesley who was still watching him. He was about to wonder about that when she leaned forward, displaying her cleavage very nicely thank you, and wagged her finger at him.
//There's a devil in that angel face. If you could only see the love that you're wastin'//
Her hand slid down the outside of her leg and then up the inside of her thigh to slow suggestively over her crotch. Angel felt a sudden tightening of his own crotch as he imagined this tiny intoxicating blonde in his bed. She was causing something inside him to spark in response to her sensuality that had nothing to do with sex. Her eyes showed intelligence and humour and Angel was captivated. He still couldn't figure out where he'd seen her before.
//I can love you better that that. I know how to make you forget her. All I'm askin' is for one little chance. Cause baby I can love you, baby I can love you better//
Wesley watched from across the room as the counterspell began to take hold. They had cast a small glamour on Buffy to make certain Angel wouldn't recognise her and he was still reacting to her the way he always had. At least in Wesley's experience the vampire had always looked at Buffy with a mixture of adoration, lust and devotion. And wild jealousy of the other men watching her as she swayed her hips and gestured suggestively.
He spared a moment from watching the one spell take hold of Angel while the other lost its grip to glance at Lorne by the stage. The green demon looked as though someone had swatted him with a two-by- four then run over his puppy. Wesley felt a smile on his lips as he watched his anagogic friend read real kyerumption for a change.
//I'm gonna break this spell she's got on you.//
The song was actually an integral part of the spell. The original version required Buffy to perform a chant declaring herself to be the person Cordelia's spell was making the seer imitate. The idea was to remind Angel that there was a real person he wanted and break the bond formed with Cordelia in the process of reaffirming the bond with Buffy. Unfortunately the spell required Angel's voluntary assistance and getting him to sit down for it would have been difficult. Willow had a moment of brilliance when she suggested the Slayer sing the Dixie Chick's song. It included all the sentiments of the original spell and could be used under cover of Buffy being a singing stripper.
Wesley had expressed his doubts but Willow had assured him that she had heard Buffy singing in the shower well enough to be convincing. They had rehearsed the spell several times before the party and Wesley had to admit she had a lovely voice. One could only hope that if by some miracle she and Angel ever had children they would receive their mother's voice.
//You're gonna wake up to find I'm your desire my intentions are true Hey babe I know it's time.//
Buffy sang and began to leave the stage. She locked her eyes on Angel's and lost herself in them as she told him how she felt. The song didn't just cover the meaning of the spell, it said exactly what she felt. What she felt every time she thought of Cordelia and Angel married. Even though Willow and that warlock Geoff had told her Angel wouldn't be able to recognise her, Buffy felt as though he did. He looked at her the way he always had, with so much longing, love and pent up desire she wanted to forget the spell and just throw herself at him. Only the knowledge that he would go and marry Cordelia if she did kept her mind on the spell.
//You're gonna see what you mean to me. So open up your eyes cause seein' is believin'.//
She had reached his table and Angel stared at her, caught in the grip of a need he couldn't remember feeling since . . . since he was last with Buffy. The last time they trained together maybe, or the day of her eighteenth birthday when she'd pretended to stake him with that baguette as they wrestled on the floor. He looked at the small blonde woman who was peeling off those tight black pants with a seductive wriggle and felt a compulsion to do something. Kiss her, hide her from the invasive looks of the other men there, declare undying love, he didn't know. Perhaps all three at once.
The woman moved closer and he could feel her warm breath on his face. He could smell the scent of her arousal and the light smell of lavender. The same scent Buffy always wore graced this woman's skin and Angel was catapulted back in time to the days when he constantly scented the air around him in hopes of detecting that aroma nearby. With sudden clarity he knew that he couldn't ever marry Cordelia. This blonde woman, so like Buffy, had removed all thoughts of the seer from his mind.
If he had to be honest, and in the confines of his mind he might as well be, he had taken to Cordelia so well in recent months because of how much like Buffy she had become. The selflessness and desire to help others that so characterised his beautiful slayer was a mantle Cordelia wore grudgingly and Buffy's ease and grace. Of course, that was naturally a part of who Buffy was, whereas Cordelia had developed these traits with effort and time. A fact that normally made him proud of her was suddenly fodder for questions about Cordelia's motivations.
Worse, he was beginning to wonder whether he truly loved the former brunette as much as he claimed. He could clearly recall rebuffing her years ago while he was dating Buffy and it was not merely because he was in a relationship. Something about her had put him off. He shook his head firmly. He loved Cordelia. Why would he be marrying her otherwise? A small voice in his head whispered, *Why indeed?*
//I can love you better that that. I know how to make you forget her.//
The tiny black silk panties swaying in front of him distracted him from any thoughts of Cordelia. Angel was hypnotised by their motion as the woman promised him love and his gaze drifted up to her face where her eyes promised him a world. Something in him clung for a moment to a memory of Cordelia and gentle kisses before it was replaced by remembered passion and desire with Buffy and fantasies with this woman who could be her sister.
//All I'm askin' is for one little chance. Cause baby I can love you, baby I can love you better//
Geoff nodded at Wesley as he felt the other spell take flight. Whatever had held Angel to Cordelia was gone and Angel was gazing at Buffy with a light in his eyes that the ex-watcher hadn't seen in years. He nodded back at the warlock indicating he was to take off the glamour. Wesley sat back to watch the melodrama of Buffy and Angel unfold. It would be better than Passions.
//I can love you better that that. I know how to make you forget her.//
Buffy knew the instant the glamour broke because the look in Angel's eyes went from lust to happiness to fury in an instant. "Buffy!? What the hell is going on!?"
The karaeoke machine continued unheeded in the background as Buffy answered. "We're breaking the spell that was used to make Cordelia fall in love with you."
Angel snorted. "Spell? There's no spell making me l . . ." He froze and his eyes went wide. "My god! What the hell was I thinking?"
"See?" Buffy said. "Spell."
He shook his head. "Who's `we'?" he asked.
Buffy gestured into the crowd. "Wesley, Geoff, Willow and me."
//All I'm askin' is for one little chance. Cause baby I can love you, baby I can love you better//
"I see," he said. Then he snatched his coat off the chair behind him. "Is there any particular reason all these men had to see you half naked?" he demanded irritably. He draped it over her and began to glare impartially at any that came too close.
She shrugged. "Would have agreed for us to do the counterspell before?" Angel noted with some satisfaction that she sniffed his coat and snuggled into despite it being fairly hot inside the club.
"I . . ." he paused, she was right. "That's no reason for you to go flaunting yourself in front of other men like that," he grouched. The whole room was watching now. Gunn and Lorne both looked taken aback by the scene before them.
She raised an eyebrow. "You seemed to be enjoying it."
//I can love you better that that. I know how to make you forget her.//
"That was before I knew my mate was showing other men something only I should see," Angel retorted.
"Your mate?" Gunn asked from his corner. "What about Cordy?"
"Indeed," added Wesley. "Are you going to go through with your marriage to Cordelia?"
Angel suddenly seemed to realise the dilemma he was in and turned to Buffy. "Oh no," she said. "This is your mess and you have to find a way out of it. I'll support whatever you want but you have to choose and do."
//All I'm askin' is for one little chance. Cause baby I can love you, baby I can love you better//
His face fell and he looked away from her. "What I want," he echoed. "What I want I can never have."
She stepped to him and forced him to look at her. "That depends," she said with a small smile. "What do you want?"
"I want you," he said, his voice just short of a sob, "I want to hold you and love you and I never can because just being this close to you now makes me too happy to be safe."
Buffy's smile widened and her eyes filled with tears. "Oh Angel," she murmured and wrapped her arms around him and felt him do the same. Then she raised her voice back to a conversational level. "Actually," she paused and he lifted his head from her shoulder and pulled back enough to look at her again. She grinned as she continued, "Your soul isn't going to go anywhere. When Willow cursed you some spirit took her over and she did a different spell. There's no more happiness clause."
He looked torn. "Are you completely sure?" he asked softly.
"Yes."
Buffy found herself pressed tightly against Angel as he kissed her. His hands slid under the jacket to touch bare skin and Buffy moaned as he pressed his hard on against her. They had both completely forgotten their audience until Wesley cleared his throat and tapped Angel's shoulder. "Not that I am at all averse to your reunion, but perhaps you ought to do it elsewhere? In a less public setting maybe."
"What about Cordy?" Gunn wanted to know.
//I can love you better that that. I know how to make you forget her.//
"Who?" Angel asked while trying to unobtrusively nuzzle Buffy's neck.
Wesley smirked as Gunn said in exasperation. "Y'know, the woman you're going to marry? Hot? Has visions? Dyes her hair blonde? Am I ringin' any bells?"
Buffy controlled a giggle. "She's dyed her hair blonde? Really? That's so tacky."
"You're right," Angel sighed and stopped nibbling on his mate's neck. "I owe it to Cordelia to tell her we're not getting married and about the spell." He headed for the door with Buffy, who reappeared moments after they left, ran about the room picking up her fallen clothes and then scampered out the door again.
************
She explained to him how the spell worked in the car as she shimmied back into her tight pants, tank top and jacket. Angel watched appreciatively in the rearview mirror. The found a note on the counter from Cordelia saying that she'd gone to the hairdresser's for an emergency appointment and would be back late. Angel turned to Buffy and said, "Actually, that's a good thing. I hadn't really figured out how I was going to explain this to her."
Buffy smirked a little. "You mean that someone cast a spell on her to make her into your ideal woman and no one knows why?"
"Yes." Angel heaved a sigh. "It's just that I feel like I've been leading her on."
She took his hand and made him sit next to her on one of the couches in the lobby. "Angel, you are both victims in this. Cordy was never meant to act the way she was and you weren't meant to fall in love with her." She paused. "Well, who knows. Maybe you were. But not like that, not with some spell making both of you act different."
"I just-" he started.
She placed a hand under his chin and looked him in the eye. "No. The only person wrong in this case was the person who cast the spell." Trying to lighten the mood she added, "And maybe that Lorne guy who thought you and Cordelia are soulmates."
There was a moment when he seemed about to take offence, then he grinned at her and pulled her into a kiss. They sat on the couch just kissing until a loud voice made them jump apart. "What the hell is going on here?"
"Cordelia," Angel gasped. "Listen, I need to explain-"
"Why you're making out in the lobby with little miss I'm-a-slayer-I'm- so-special?" she demanded. Angel looked at her. She was tapping her foot in annoyance and her newly darkened hair was done in an attractive new style. Her eyes were flashing and the mockery rolled off her tongue with ease. "We're getting married tomorrow," she continued, "And I am damned if I am going to have everyone laughing at me over you."
Buffy shot a look at Angel. "You'd better have been telling the truth about her personality changing because right now she seems the same as ever."
"Excuse you?" shot back the brunette. "My personality is just fine thank you so very much and I would appreciate it if you would get your extreme bad hair out of my presence and away from my fiancée."
Angel broke in, "Cordelia, we need to talk."
Her eyes widened. "No!" She stepped away from him and her eyes flicked between Buffy and Angel. "She said it would work! That witch said it would work!"
In turn, the vampire's eyes narrowed. "What would work Cordelia?" Suddenly he made the leap. "You cast the spell. Why?"
"Because," Cordelia turned to him, "I saw you at the Bronze and you blew me off for Buffy. You did it again and again." Her voice held none of the kindness that had attracted Angel to her while both were under the spell's influence and her face darkened with every word until she was scowling. "Every time I nearly had you she would waltz in and snatch you away. Even when you came to LA after graduation you still didn't think about anything but her."
//All I'm askin' is for one little chance. Cause baby I can love you, baby I can love you better//
Buffy and Angel were watching the seer, absolutely dumbfounded. "You cast the spell because Angel liked me better than you?" asked the Slayer.
"He liked you better because you go around playing the martyr and pretending you're so unselfish," Cordelia snapped. "Always boo-hooing about how you gave up your true love for the world and how hard it is being the Slayer." She snorted. "Since you were gonna play that all's fair in love and war bit, I figured it was okay to use a spell that'd make Angel notice me." Her attention turned elsewhere, "And when I get my hands on that witch for lying to me-"
Angel cut her off. "Wesley figured out that someone cast a spell Cordy. He called Buffy to come down here and break it."
"What?" demanded Cordelia, "That spell needs you to find a person's soulmate to break it."
Buffy shrugged. "Not really, just someone closer to being the soulmate than the person the spell was cast on." Then she grinned up at her high school nemesis. "Of course, the fact that we are soulmates did help."
The brunette woman rolled her eyes. "Oh please. You couldn't be soulmates. You're both too into that whole doomed love deal. Besides, soulmates are just what people call couples with better than average public chemistry factor." She snorted. "True love. Please. And Angel and I are way cuter together than you and Angel. Clearly we're soulmates however little that means."
Angel seemed almost to pale as he heard those words. "Is that what you really think?"
"Duh! Soulmates. Please. The only people who still believe in that crap are you and Fred." She seemed unaware of Angel's distress and Buffy's growing anger. "I mean really, who would believe that crap Buffy the Vampire Layer spouted at you about love? If she really loved you as much as she claimed she wouldn't have dumped you in Sunnydale or sent you to Hell or whatever."
Buffy seemed on the verge of an aneurysm until she looked and saw Angel's earlier pallor was giving way to fury. She reached out to calm him before he did something rash but he shook her off. "Cordelia," he said softly.
He was ignored. "God. If I'd known that stupid spell would make me look like Buffy too I'd've thought twice about casting it. That hair made me look like a dork."
"CORDELIA!" Angel shouted. Before she could get a word in he returned to conversational volume. "I don't love you, and after this I don't think it's even remotely in the realm of the possible that I would." She opened her mouth to respond and Angel shot her a look that froze her mid-word. "I love Buffy because she is a kind, generous, giving, sweet, strong, good and a great many other wonderful things. None of which you share."
"So you believe to that song that says you should marry an ugly chick hunh?" Cordelia replied.
Angel vamped out at her words and turned on her with a growl. "Cordy," Buffy said, "Why don't you leave now and come back say . . . never?" The seer hesitated only long enough for the irate vampire to start advancing on her in fury then she took off for parts unknown.
There were several minutes of silence following Cordelia's abrupt departure. Angel wandered over to the counter and idly flipped through a couple files while he waited for his temper to simmer down and Buffy fidgeted with the office plant. Suddenly Angel turned and told her, "You can't believe what she said."
"What?" Buffy asked.
He crossed the room and kissed her, then cupped her face in his hands and said, "You are the most beautiful woman I've ever seen Buffy and I've seen a lot of them."
The Slayer giggled. "Well that's an exaggeration-"
"No," he cut in. "It's not just that you're a wonderful person Buffy. You are beautiful. Your hair is my sunlight, your skin so fair and smooth, I . . . I just don't have the words to tell you."
She smiled at him, teary-eyed. "I think you were doing just fine." Then she frowned a little. "You know, I just realised. You've got a wedding to cancel."
He winced slightly, then paused, then told her, "Wait right here and don't move." Buffy watched in bewilderment as Angel sprinted up the stairs and vanished into the darkness. She had just decided to give him one more minute before she went looking when he reappeared. He shot down the stairs, taking them four at a time, and dropped to one knee in front of her. He took her hand and said, "Buffy Summers, I know I don't deserve you and never will, but will you marry me?"
Buffy opened her mouth, but no sound issued from it. Angel began to worry. Was the proposal too abrupt? Did she not want to marry him?
//I can love you better than that. I can love you better.//
"Yes."
Angel gulped. He'd just asked her, but he couldn't believe it. "Really?"
Buffy smiled, then laughed, and said, "Really."
"Great! Are you willing to do it tomorrow?" Angel was confused although happy when Buffy fell over laughing into his arms. "What?" He loved to see her so happy but didn't quite get what was so funny.
She controlled her laughter with an effort and told him, "Sweetheart, you don't think I knew what was on your mind the minute you proposed?" She snickered in spite of herself. "I would have told you if I wanted to put it off. As it is, You're going to have to arrange the changes in all the legal stuff, and I'm going to have to call all my friends in Sunnydale."
"Right," Angel said. He told her where the office phone was and then rushed off to make calls to various people including the priest, the municipal marriage license people, Cordelia's friends who were no longer required to come but were still invited. They all turned him down, naturally. By the time he was done it was four hours later and he was greeted by the sounds of Buffy's friends when he reached the landing at the top of the stairs.
Dawn spotted him first. "Angel!" she shouted, then rushed up the stairs. "Go back to your room. It's bad luck to see the bride in her wedding gown or the night before the wedding, and you were about to do both."
He blinked at the teenager. "But Dawn, I have to tell her that I've got everything settled and-"
"Then you'll tell me everything or write it down or something and I'll tell her," Dawn said stubbornly. Angel gave in to the inevitable and told Dawn the address of the church, the name of the priest, the time the wedding was scheduled (after sunset) and many other things that, listening to Dawn talk downstairs, "The priest's name is Andrew McTaggert blah blah blah-"
"Dawn!" Buffy scolded her sister.
"What?"
"What's the blah?" Willow asked.
Dawn let out a much put upon sigh, "He's an Irish Catholic priest and Angel says he's going to do some part of the thing in Gaelic, and there's some stuff here which I think is the Gaelic it's like Na however-the-hell-you-say-ghradh-"
"Give me that," said Willow.
Angel was going to go down when he was grabbed and dragged away from the stairs. He was about to struggle when he realised that it was Xander and Wesley dragging him. "Forget it. Willow said you're not going down there and she used her resolve face. You're staying put `til tomorrow," Xander said.
"Come Hell or high water," added Wesley.
The vampire sighed and acquiesced.
***************
Angel fidgeted beside the altar and seriously considered telling Buffy that it was too soon and they should have arranged for a wedding that was more theirs than Cordelia's. He promptly forgot everything when she appeared in a beautiful antique wedding gown on Giles arm. She stood beside him and he only responded to the words of the ritual from sheer instinct.
Buffy desperately split her attention between Angel and what the priest was saying about love, duty and eternity. It suddenly struck her that the vows the priest was describing were the vows she and Angel had already made each other. All that was left for her was to repeat what Father McTaggert said and put on a ring.
Father McTaggert said, "If there should be any reason why these two should not be wed, speak now or forever hold your peace."
And naturally, Cordelia responded. "He's supposed to be marrying me! That bitch took him away from me!"
Angel glared at her and snarled back, "You cast a damn spell to make me think I was in love with you! Buffy didn't steal me from anyone! I've loved her since the day I first laid eyes on her which is more than I can say for you." Then he turned his back on her and ignored her shriek of irritation. He heard her come pounding down the carpet toward him and he tensed for an attack. Instead Lorne and Gunn rose and, faces grim, pulled the struggling Cordelia from the church
The priest looked somewhat discomfited despite having heard the whole sordid tale. Giles, Willow, Dawn, Wesley, Xander and a somewhat reluctant Anya all stood. Wesley said, "We will all vouch for the validity of this marriage." He smiled a tad sheepishly. "To . . . er . . . counteract Cordelia's accusations shall we say."
The rest of the ceremony was a blur to the couple. Then they were married for real and forever.
Outside, as they ran under the thrown birdseed and the full moon the newlyweds saw Cordelia still struggling between Lorne and Gunn. Buffy smirked at her husband and whisper-sang to him, "I can love you better than that. Baby I can love you, baby I can love you better."
Angel laughed and kissed her before pulling her into his GTX and the rest of their lives.
The End